tutorial: DIY confetti

i will be posting tutorials from time to time and thought i'd kick this off with one that i've received the most private messages on: my wedding confetti!

there are so many companies out there that make beautiful confetti, but the shapes and colors i liked cost an arm and a leg. since i'm pretty handy with an xacto blade and trusty steel ruler, i decided to cut the costs by a mile (roughly $10/guest to under $0.75/guest) and take matters into my own hands.

check with your venue if they allow confetti to be thrown and if they have any material restrictions. i wanted silver mylar, but they advised that it would take forever-and-a-half to cleanup so i opted for tissue paper only.

i don't have any advice on how to budget for # of guests... for 190 guests, i bought:24 sheets per pack6 colors (but only ended up using 5)3 packs per color......and had WAY too much! after the recessional toss, we ended up using the leftovers for the photobooth, and i STILL have a few dozen handfuls leftover.

bigger confetti falls prettier—imagine a whole autumn leaf flipping and falling slowly vs. just a piece of it. i think circular confetti is pretty, but i didn't like the idea of the waste created by it, so i went with rectangles.

step 1: sliceusing the mat, blade, and ruler, cut the sheets of tissue paper into ~1-inch thick strips. i kept the sheet folded in half length-wise to make it easier. also doubled-up on the tissue paper so it was more efficient, but still thin enough to cut clean.

step 2: dice (see left side of photo)using the scissors, cut the 1-inch strips roughly 2-inches so you get a nice 1x2 rectangle.

step 3: mix!the best part. some blogs said to stack the confetti (ain't nobody got time for that) but ours was just mixed in a big plastic bin and it worked out fine.